DEARBORN — On Tuesday, September 24, community leaders gathered at the Dearborn Performing Arts Center for a meeting held by the group, BRIDGES (Building Respect In Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity), in order to discuss agenda items pertaining to both the community and the organization itself.

BRIDGES was formed shortly after 9/11, in an effort to gather government agencies and local community leaders to address backlash against the local Arab American and Middle Eastern communities in southeast Michigan. Since its inception, it has served as a forum for communication with government agencies and the Arab, Muslim and Chaldean American communities.

During this month’s meeting, some of the focus was on selecting a new community Co-Chair for the program.  BRIDGES, which meets periodically throughout the year, had been led by U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade and ADC Regional Director Imad Hamad. However, following sexual harassment allegations made against Hamad earlier this year at his workplace, he stepped down from the position of Co-Chair. Attorney Ali Hammoud, has filled in as the Interim Co-Chair in the meantime.

McQuade tells The Arab American News that community leaders involved with the program will have the final say in the yet-to-be-determined selection process.

“Because there is a vacancy in the community co-chair position, we have suggested to everyone in the room that it be the community who selects the next co-chair. The community agreed that it would meet on a separate occasion to discuss a process,” McQuade says.  “We want to make sure it’s transparent and inclusive. We also want to discuss whether they want to set a term limit on that position, so that it could rotate and different people can have an opportunity to serve.”

A steering committee, consisting 20 members from BRIDGES, plans to meet soon to discuss what procedures to take in selecting a Co-Chair.

Representatives from the Arab American Civil Rights League (ACRL), the Council on American Islamic Relations of Michigan (CAIR-MI), the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations (ACLU), among others, discussed several current issues, concerning the local community.

The “No-Fly List” was one of the top concerns at the meeting, along with the controversial “stop and frisk” policy that was recently adopted from New York City by the Detroit Police Department. Other concerns included national bank account closures for Muslim and Arab Americans and Syrian Americans targeted by government officials in regards  to the turmoil currently occurring in their homeland.   

BRIDGES participants are aiming to re-group at a later, yet-to-be-determined date, in order to discuss these issues in greater detail.

There was some positive news to come out of the meeting, however. McQuade announced that a new policy has been implemented by the Michigan Supreme Court that could benefit thousands of bilingual residents. 

All state courts are now required to provide free foreign language interpreters to residents whose income is less than 125 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, that would make residents, whose income falls below $14,000 a year, eligible for the free service.

McQuade says she hopes the services will be most beneficial to bilingual women, many of whom have previously lacked the appropriate litigation in court when seeking divorce from their husbands and who may have found themselves in a child custody battle, due to language barriers.